The Long Dream (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Wright
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: The late 1930’s and the 1940’s
- Setting: Mississippi
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: African Americans, Racism, Murder or homicide, Police, 1940’s, 1930’s, Fear, Mississippi, Business or business people, Corruption, Dancing or dancers
- Locales: Mississippi
Characters Discussed
Rex “Fishbelly” Tucker, a young black man, the central character. When the story opens, Fish is five years old, the only son of Tyree Tucker, the leading black person in Clintonville, Mississippi, which has a population of ten thousand blacks and fifteen thousand whites. Fish comes to understand that he lives in a twisted society that makes it wrong to be black. At about the age of six, he spits at his image in the mirror and exclaims, “nigger.” At the age of twelve, he is initiated into manhood when an older friend is brutally beaten, castrated,...
[The entire page is 1286 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
